zlacker

>>YeGobl+(OP)
I’m always confused why conservatives tend to support the death penalty. The conservative ethos is to reduce the power of the state to prevent abuse, but giving the state the right to kill a citizen clearly goes against that. How can you mistrust the state in almost every aspect of society, yet trust it to only kill people that “deserve” it?

>>dimal+zl
> The conservative ethos is to reduce the power of the state to prevent abuse

It's not. Maybe you're thinking of libertarianism? The conservative ethos is to preserve and promote a social hierarchy. This requires both winners and losers.

>>lapcat+Ym
> It's not.

Limiting the power of government is a central idea in conservative thought, especially in America[0].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_Sta...

>>d-z-m+5r
The articulation political landscape in the US is excessively reductive. "Conservatives", usually referencing social conservatives and often implying Christianity, are not small government people. They're currently allied with the small government people in a coalition that constitutes the current base of the Republican party, but conservatives and small government libertarian minded people are two different constituencies. They might overlap a bit, you get some religious people with a live and let live mentality or a social conservative who believes that social structures should be enforced by community rather than law, but they're distinct ideologies.

It's like how everyone says liberals are socialist progressives. They're usually not, but the two groups form a coalition that constitutes the base of the Democrat party.